


The waifu movement: Explanation and misconceptions

by JenizaroFrank



Category: Original Work
Genre: Essays, Love, Other, waifu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-07 00:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4242660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenizaroFrank/pseuds/JenizaroFrank
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waifus, a word that is laden with certain kind of people and certain kind of fandom. But is it only another gimmicky in the world of entertainment? Or is it actual a movement in its very beginnings? Works focusing on this issue are very scarce, but they would definitily be helpful. This short essay tries to accomplish this. Waifuism is often compared with other delusional disorders, but it is far from an actual problem for the self. References added.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The waifu movement: Explanation and misconceptions

**Author's Note:**

> I am the author of this essay written on the year 2015. I don't mind if you take information from this work (and I encourage it!) But make sure to give credit to the author and cite properly.
> 
> Example:  
> Gómez, F.J. (2015, June) The waifu movement: Explanation and misconceptions (APA)

Love is a wonderful, yet complicated feeling that is part of human nature. It comes in variety of forms: love for someone, love for something, love for what you do. But, sometimes, love can cause problems. People can get obsessed with it, especially if someone else is involved. Not only it can hurt a loved one, it can hurt oneself as well. However, when this obsessive love is not focused on a real person, the negative effects are diminished in such a way that this dedication starts being beneficial for the people who practice it. Lovestruck cases for imaginary characters are not unheard of and it is becoming more common as time passes, but still they lack the exhaustive study they require in order to clarify some of the prejudices and misconceptions surrounding this phenomenon.

Before starting, it is very important to clarify what exactly this phenomenon is about. In recent years, thanks to the mass information internet provides, cases of people falling in love with fictional characters have surfaced to public knowledge. As time passes by, new cases have emerged till the point communities have been formed in order to discuss and share this kind of lifestyle. The most vital definition that stablishes the crux of this community’s philosophy is the term waifu. A waifu is a two-dimensional character which serves as the object of admiration of someone who is in love with it (Anonymous, 2013, para. 13). The word comes from the loan term waifu used by young husbands to address their wives in modern Japan (Motoko, 1976, p. 995). Taking this term as the base of their motivations, the Waifu Movement (also known as waifuism) is formed. Although this movement has not actively promoted their way of life in public media and social activism (and they are not interested in doing so), it is a social occurrence that still goes steadily underground and could be a topic of interest for the field of sociology and psychology.

This kind of love for an inexistent character is often compared to other kinds of delusional love: erotomania or De Clérambault’s syndrome, a behavioral disorder in which a person falls so deeply in love with another one that it becomes an obsession. The target of this obsession does not love his admirer of even know him, yet the person affected by this syndrome strongly believes that the sentiment is mutual. When facing this contradiction, the obsessed person may develop an aggressive behavior against his target or the ones around him, namely his family and loved ones (Goldstein, 1987, p. 268). Another common attitude is constant stalking, often resulting in the disruption of the victim of this obsession (Jordan et al., 2006, p. 789). However, the first difference between these disorders and the waifu lifestyle is found here. The love target is not a real person. And rather than someone one loves, the waifu is part of oneself, as one sees in one’s waifu qualities that one lacks or wishes to have, thus complementing each other’s virtues creating a whole (“Waifus and the self”, 2011, para. 3). In this sense, a waifu takes life depending on how it is imagined (Anonymous, 2013, para. 22). With these factors in mind, a waifu belongs to the person who dedicates his fantasies to it and no one else. Without a second party involved, the probabilities of hurting someone else are close zero.

What about people who have waifus themselves? Falling in love with a fictional character sounds like a psychiatric problem. And it actually is in the case of erotomania which is often associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (Jordan et al., 2006, p. 790). But in the case of waifus there is another important difference: someone who has a waifu knows what he is doing and accepts that his love object is imaginary (Anonymous, 2013, para. 16-18). While in erotomania cases the patient is utterly convinced that his love object loves him back so deeply that he believes his love object will not achieve happiness if it is not with him, even if the victim is already married (Jordan & Howe, 1980, p. 979). What this implies is that in the latter the person is not aware of his condition. Meanwhile in the former, it is a mere choice of lifestyle. People who decide to have a waifu only choose a path to achieve happiness, not because they have an actual disorder (Anonymous, 2013, para. 15).

If mental disorders are not the influence behind this phenomenon, are not they just deluding themselves? Yes, they are. This is where both erotomania and waifuism share a common trait. But again, both cases diverge once some factors are taking into consideration. First, as already explained, is the awareness of the people who practice waifuism of what they are doing. Second is the selection of the love target: in erotomania cases, the person who is loved servers as a defense against low self-esteem and may even be a way to improve one’s self-image (Jordan & Howe, 1980, p. 980). On the other hand, waifuism cases happen because the person just fell in love with an archetype’s set of personality traits (Anonymous, 2013, para. 20). The reason of this is the constant disappointment these people experience in human relationships. When confronted with this kind of difficulty, they seek positive archetypes and reject the negative ones that share similarities with their past bad experiences. However, it is important to notice that archetypes are not either good or bad. They are just archetypes which serve as guidance throughout our motivations in life (De Coster, 2010, p. 6). In this case, a waifu is not an attempt to fill an emotional void or a replacement of social interaction, but a different choice of lifestyle that aids in the happiness of an individual.

The waifu movement is still a very strange phenomenon for some people who are very likely to easily misunderstand its purpose, usually mocking it or being intimidated by it. But the truth is that it is a pretty harmless way of face life. The people who are part of this movement keep it to themselves most of the time because they know the implications of being in love with a fictional character. Research and opinions regarding this subject are still very difficult to find and would help enormously to clarify the myths that beset this movement, much like this essay tried to accomplish.

**Author's Note:**

> References:
> 
> A discourse on and defense of the ‘Waifu’ Movement (2013). Retrieved from http://postimg.org/image/uyyidpyv7/
> 
> De Coster, P. L. (2010). The collective unconscious and its archetypes. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/TheCollectiveUnconsciousAndItsArchetypes_100
> 
> Goldstein, R. (1987). More forensic romances: De Clérambault’s syndrome in men. The Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 15(3). Retrieved from http://www.jaapl.org/content/15/3/267.full.pdf+html
> 
> Jordan, H. W., & Howe, G. (1980). De Clerambault Syndrome (Erotomania): A Review and Case Presentation. Journal of the National Medical Association, 72(10). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2552541/?page=1
> 
> Jordan, H. W., Lockert, W. E., Johnson-Warren, Mr., Cabell, C., Cooke, T., Greer, W., & Howe, G. (2006). Erotomania revisited: Thirty-four years later. Journal of the National Medical Association, 98(5). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569288/?page=1
> 
> Motoko, Y. L. (1976). The married woman's status and role as reflected in Japanese: An exploratory sociolinguistic study. Signs, 1(4). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173253
> 
> Waifus and the self (2011). Retrieved from http://puu.sh/ixGV9/4ba8043386.txt


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